Lost
by TheaSong956
Summary: The short, sad story of a young boy who ventured too far into the Lost Woods...


**Author's Note**:

**This is just a cute little one-shot exploring the life of Skull Kid during Twilight Princess. If you are following my multi-chapter story ****_Dragonflies, _****these cute little stories may come every once and a while, so don't be afraid to check them out. If you aren't, read and review my other story please!**

* * *

_Eh-hee-hee...You have the same smell as the fairy kid who taught me that song in the woods..._

* * *

It was fifty years after the Hero of Time. Fifty years of peace. Nobody ever knew of a man named the King of Thieves, only that he tried to take over the land but was defeated and then executed. The King told the people that the man was dead, and nothing went wrong. Of course, they would never know the real truth. And nobody knew of the great hero and his efforts to stop this man from decimating the entire kingdom. No, they went about their lives without a hero.

In the northern-most section of Hyrule, in front of the grand and beautiful castle that rose into the sky, was a town. It was alive with the energy of busy people, too caught up in their own lives to know of the lurking dangers that threatened their whole world. Nor did they know of the spirits, gods, and heroes that always had a hand in their fates. No, they just carried their pots and baskets filled with bread, fruit, water and wine to return back home. Mother's voices could be heard cooing their wailing babies as they ran their errands. Children screamed, shouted, ducked and rolled around the legs of adults, who would shout at them in annoyance. Men could be heard exploding at traders in their stalls about overly-priced meat. Some musicians played their lyres, flutes, harps and sang, hoping by some chance that somebody would awaken from the mist of their busy lives to lend a few rupees.

Of course, not all was well within the city. There were complicated people.

"Come on you little brat!" A woman tugged the hand of her nine-year-old son harshly to keep him moving. He was a dreamy boy, who at the moment was gazing at a butterfly and trying to let it land on his index finger. Just before the insect's tiny legs met his skin, he was ripped away and forced to continue on. His mother was a nasty woman. She had messy brown hair in a knotted bun, a dirty apron over a brown and fading dress with the sleeves rolled hastily up her fat arms. The boy did not know much about why she was so cross all of the time. Just that his father betrayed her, something about selling her to some military man to get money and she had to work a lot. Then she gave birth and decided to run away. After that, they never got a lot of food. He didn't know why that was either.

She shuffled along, mercilessly dragging the poor boy with her.

"Good for nothin' kid!" She rambled on. "Should've left you on the street where you belong!"

He got that a lot. Just a lot of mean words and threats.

They stopped at a stall where her mother thankfully diverted her wrath on the poor salesman who over-priced his squash just one rupee over their budget.

During the time he waited, he tuned out her raw, screeching voice and heard the birds singing, saw the blue sky, smelled a hibiscus and felt the light summer breeze blow his dark brown hair out of his eyes. He loved it all...

He was ripped from his sitting place on the ground once again and dragged through the busy town. He ran into a few people during their race through the market and scuffed his knees and hands. By the time they were done, they had gotten two cucumbers and one pot of water for the week. Barely anything.

He was pulled back to their rundown shack in the outskirts of town. It wasn't really anything. Just some sun dried mud from the field, a wood frame and a hay roof that always fell apart when it rained and left them soaked. It tilted awkwardly to the left, nothing like the tall, proud noble houses like the Vinet Manor. They were stable and lavish. Nothing like his house. And nothing like his life.

His mother threw him through what they called a front door and hobbled in, grumbling about burdening children. The boy did as he always did, stood facing the corner and did not say a word. His mother started the fire and the kettle, boiling water to start recooking their leftovers of the week.

Not only an hour or so later, he was harshly called over to the floor where they ate that followed with a curse.

It stung.

His heart- it hurt. It hurt so much. All the time...

Again, he was called, this time with two curses.

_Stop. No more. I can't take it. _

Something grabbed hold of his arm and whirled him around so fast the world was spinning. He was met with the rage filled green eyes of his mother, a snarl creeping up her lips and revealing rotting teeth.

"Stupid kid! You deaf?!" She pushed him back into the wall. Instead of looking on with fear as he had done for nine years, defiance laced his brown eyes and filled his chest with power and strength.

Taking in a great lungful of air, he shouted his rebellion.

"No!"

Here eyes widened with even more raw rage.

"_No?_" She whispered.

"_NO?!_" She raised her arm to back hand him when he uttered,

"Don't you love me?"

And the hand never came down.

He opened his eyes to see that the rage had completely been wiped off of her face. Her eyes were wide, but not with anger. She was surprised. No- she looked blindsided. She had stopped breathing. Her chest was still and her lips were pursed together so tightly that they were white.

So he asked again. "Don't you love me?"

She snapped out of it. "I-I-" She began. But he cut her off.

"No. You don't."

She did not reply, so he continued.

"You drag and push me. You call me mean names and say mean things. So you must not love me."

He did not meet her eyes.

"I've seen mothers. They sing to their children. They hug their children. They tell their children stories. Since you never do that..." He trailed off.

Something that looked like dread came across her face, and then she sighed. She put her hands on his shoulders. "Oh, Carcer...It's not that simple-"

"Mothers are always tired. They always work. But they always have time for their children." He argued.

"I'm trying. I'm trying _so _hard. But whatever I do, we always struggle. I always get the short end of the deal. But, you must understand I _do _love you. I just take it out on you and I-"

"But you regret me."

She stopped.

He chuckled. "Yes. You don't want me around because I cause you problems." He stood up to his full height.

Suddenly, he knocked her hands away from him and pushed her away. He was out the door in an instant. His feet pounded against the silver stone and his legs pumped. He could feel it now, the regret and anger and sadness and hurt and betrayal. Emotions a boy of that age shouldn't ever have all swirled around in his stomach. They boiled, and then seeped into his gut to create this awful, sick feeling. He ignored it and kept running as fast as he could.

"Carcer!" He heard his mother call desperately.

"Carcer! Come back! I'll change, I promise!"

It wasn't too late. He knew that. But he kept running anyways.

He ran. He ran so fast, so hard and for so long that was all he knew.

Just run.

Get away.

Escape.

Disappear.

Little did he know, that his heart was leading the way, and by the time he was so exhausted he could barely stand up and stopped he was nowhere near the town. He couldn't see it anymore. He was surrounded by trees. Lots of trees.

He was in a small clearing. There was green everywhere. No more stone, straw, and people.

It was a quiet, desolate place with no people. Just nature.

the forest floor was covered with plants and the fallen leaves from the trees above. There were some stone structures here and there, suggesting a lost settlement from long ago. Giant tree stumps, none that he could ever imagine, stood rooted to the ground.

It was...perfect.

Carcer giggled. He laughed. He twirled in dizzying circles, swinging his arms in wide arcs. He fell to the ground and felt the soft grass underneath him; not even the finest goose-feather mattress that the King himself owned could compare to the forest floor. Once his sight stopped spinning he hopped up, rocking on his heels. He stomped his feet, galloped on his imaginary steed, saving Princess Zelda from evil. He waved his magic wand, now the newly appointed _eighth _sage of Hyrule. He stopped, lifting his head to take in a deep, damp earth smelling breath. He let it out, and with it, his stresses.

After the breath, Carcer paused. He became silent to listen to the soft whisper of the trees.

...something...they were saying something...

He strained to hear. It was some language he didn't understand. Like the babbling of a river. And strangely the sound of his wooden toy blocks.

Then he realized.

It was the forest.

The forest was calling to him.

He just knew.

A swift breeze picked up a few leaves that had fallen on the ground and they brushed his cheeks. Giggling, he watched them swirl ahead of him. They beckoned to him. So he ran after them. And the wind picked up again and he was chasing them.

Yes. This was a game. Called tag. He'd watched the other children play it from his window in the streets.

Just playing tag for the fist time; the thrill of the chase, made his heart swell with pride, freedom, and above all else, happiness.

Carcer's legs pumped, his lungs filled with rich, earthy air. He jumped, dived, spun, skipped, climbed and rolled in the forest after the leaves. He reached his small hands out, but just as his fingers brushed the green surface, the wind would carry them away farther. So he'd continue to chase them.

As he ran, his memories detached themselves from his mind.

One particular memory; one that he treasured, left with the others. One of a young girl his age, the one with the blond hair and large hazel eyes, who reached into her pocket, retrieved an apple, and gave it to him when he and his mother were starving. She smiled, peachy lips spreading into a lovely grin, and glided away. From them on, he vowed he'd find her. To thank her. He had imagined himself marrying her, and they'd have a son. A son that would be treated with kindness. He'd teach him how to swim, to fish. His mother would read him stories, unlike the mother he himself had. He did not know yet, but that girl would have been his future.

And the image of her smiling face, long, golden hair, peach smile, and starry eyes, was dropped on the ground behind him.

Each of his memories, over some period of time as he ran, went just like that.

Everything he ever knew; about who he was and who he wanted to be -

_gone. _

For how long he ran, he knew not. Time seemed to distort itself. A strange feeling indeed. It could have been either five minutes or five lifetimes.

It did not matter in the end.

For he would have been lead, by the forest, to the same place no matter how long it took him to get there.

He found himself in another, different, clearing. This time, one with a large tree stump in the center.

And a creature, dancing on it.

He wore a green tunic, and over it was one of leather. Leather gloves and clogs covered the rest of the skin so none showed. An ominous, horned, jaw-less skull rested over his face under a large straw hat. Rusting, silver hoops decorated the rest of his outfit as a loose belt, while also adorning his shoes and hat. He was dancing, stomping his feet in a little, clumsy jig; to the melody he was playing on an old, beat up, wooden flute.

The wind, carrying the leaves, danced with the tune. It was a mischievous, playful melody. Like the forest itself.

The young boy did not know this yet, but he had also become a part of the forest. So he was drawn to the melody. He crept ever so close to the creature..

The music stopped. He was too close.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

The boy halted, too stunned and frightened to speak.

The creature repeated himself. "What are you doing?"

He still did not respond.

So the funny looking being kept talking.

"'Don't talk much do you? You must be knew here."

He gained his courage. "Who-who are you?" he asked cautiously.

The creature jumped and landed on his bottom so he was now sitting on the tree. "'Who am I?' you ask?" He quieted, thinking for a moment.

"Why must you think about who you are? It's an obvious question." The boy interrupted, confused.

"Why?" the creature responded.

"Because, you are who you are. Everybody should know that." He stated in a matter of fact tone.

The creature laughed, a kind of screeching, shadowy laugh, while throwing his head back. He looked into the boy's eyes, a certain gleam in the dark sockets of the mask. "But do you know who you are?"

smiling in victory, the boy began, "I am-" And then stopped.

_...who am I...?_

But, he didn't really know. Where was he born? What was his name?

He realized that he'd been living his whole entire life not knowing who he was.

"Do you even know how you got here?" The creature asked.

The boy opened his mouth and then shut it. Hadn't he been here...since forever...?

"I don't know either." The creature stated, taking the boy's silence as a "No."

"Is there anybody else?" The boy asked.

"No." was the answer.

There was a harsh wind all of the sudden. And then a groaning. The creature, the skull kid, looked up towards the green canopy of the trees, where files of light came before stabbed the forest floor.

"It's moving." He mumbled.

"What's moving?" The boy demanded.

"The forest." Skull Kid stated.

"What do you mean?"

"The forest likes to move. To places where something important will happen."

"Should we go with it?"

A pause.

"Not me."

"Huh?"

Skull Kid stood up. He looked at the boy. "I guess It's time for me to go."

"Wh-why?" the boy cried.

Skull Kid looked off into the darkening woods, where the trees became thicker. "I don't know." He turned back to the boy. "Well, I guess it's your turn."

"See ya." And then, he was gone.

To where, the boy did not know.

* * *

For the next 100 years, he walked the forest. He was forever linked to these woods. And the woods changed him further.

His time in there soon drove him mad.

And he began to understand the forest and it's works. The ever changing paths were not lost paths anymore. He knew exactly where each one led by memory.

The forest finally stopped moving. Near a singing rock. Near a forgotten temple.

The new Skull Kid walked through the ruins. They were made of silver stone. A script he'd never seen before was written on the walls. Two giant statues, holding large staffs, stood proud and motionless. Crumbled arches rose out of the stone, broken works of art were merely piles of gravel. Everything held a mellow light. Like he was in some forgotten time. He walked through a path, under trees. And he was in a clearing.

Thick brush, huge pillars of wood and stone alike, surrounded the small clearing. And in the center, was a sword in a pedestal, shining in the mellow-golden sunlight. With his great curiosity, he darted to the sword. He examined it.

A purple hilt with a purple, wing like guard started the sword. At the very beginning of the blade was a broken triangle before the rest of the silver metal continued into the pedestal, shining like some kind of divine light. From it, some kind of energy washed over him. Something powerful. Something that had yet to be awakened.

Seeking that power, the Skull Kid grabbed the sword that was about as tall as he, and pulled. And pulled. And pulled. And pulled.

And he gave up. And that's when he knew. That this sword was for somebody else. Someone important.

Though he did not know, the goddesses had given him a very important job. No, he would have never grown to marry the beautiful girl who gave him the apple, but he was a small part in saving the world. And that was the price he had to pay, though unknowingly. And it wouldn't be until later that some strange darkness would spread over the forest. And later, light. So he knew that that person, the wielder of that great sword, was at work, and would come.

And then, a wolf wandered into the forest. And by the symbol on his paw, he knew that his purpose was about to be fulfilled...

* * *

_I know I'm about to lose my memories. I can feel it all slipping away. But mother, I know and understand why you treated me the way you did. I know you are sorry. And I would give anything to run back to you. I want more than anything to grow up and become a man, and I want to find that girl. And I want to take her in my arms and fall in love with her and marry her. But, things won't turn out that way. Life never does do what people want. It does what people need. I know it's an awful thing. Soon I'm going to forget about both of you completely. The lights in my world. And I can't imagine a life without you both. But it is what it is. And I know that there's a reason for this. So I just want to say..._

_I love you..._

* * *

**End Note: **

**Hope you liked it! **


End file.
